"Edgar Rye...held court at Albany...vigilantes handled the criminal end of justice...would trample over a peace officer who might elect to stand between them and a malefactor." -Doc Holliday (1955) "In his book 'The Quirt and Spur,' Rye admitted that Wray warned him that his client's life was in danger from vigilantes." -Outlaw Tales of Texas (2011) "The Quirt and Spur is pretty much a history of Fort Griffin." -A Vaquero of the Brush Country (1998) "After Rye and Cruger consulted with other clan leaders, a decision was made that the time had come to deal decisively with John Larn." -Bravo of the John Larn of Fort Griffin, Texas (2005) Were rumors true that Texas Justice of the Peace Edgar Rye was secretly a member of the infamous Tin Hat Brigade, one of the best known and probably the most active vigilance committee in Texas? In 1909, former Albany journalist and justice of the peace Edgar Rye (1848-1920) published a biographical retrospective titled, "The Quirt and the Spur" that gives hints at his role with the vigilance committee. Originally from Kentucky, Rye, was newspaper editor, justice of the peace, and county attorney in Shackelford County, Texas. Rye was thought to have been a member of a vigilance committee. Rye was an old time justice of the peace in a wild town on The Flats, which was a lawless area at the foot of the hill on which Fort Griffin stood; he was Bat Masterson's friend. Mr. Rye is evidently at home in what he writes, for every story bears the impress of the truth from a man who has lived the scenes he depicts. It is all laid in Texas, and such chapters as Breaking the Tenderfoot. The Wild and Woolly Citizen, On the Buffalo Range, A Texas Wedding Day and some dozen others, make it a book you can't put down till you finish it. Altogether a well-written, authentic and intensely interesting book of life on the plains. A valuable book for young and old. In introducing the area of frontier Texas described in his book, Rye "Far out into that vast expanse of country known as Northwest Texas, in the early days of the frontier, when unrestrained nature played with the ambitions and passions of men—far out beyond the confines of civilization—beyond the reach of the strong arm of the law—beyond the christianizing influences of the church...far out where the McKinzie trail crossed the Clear Fork of the Brazos river, near the confluence of Collins creek, Maj. George H. Thomas established an army post on the top of a low, flat hill, and named it Fort Griffin." Edgar Rye is a name known to most Texans and his book is both an entertaining and informative account of the human invasion of the rugged Texas range land.